25 January 2017

Automotive LiDAR sensor shipments to exceed 69 million in 2026

Fueled by declining hardware costs and the need to equip vehicles with multiple sensors to ensure 360-degree coverage, shipments of automotive LiDAR sensor will rise to more than 69 million in 2026, forecasts ABI Research in its 'Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)' report, as critical autonomous driving functions - including obstacle detection and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) - will drive the automotive industry's adoption of LiDAR sensors.

"Even the most ambitious vendors expect their solutions to begin shipping in high-volume models by 2019 at the earliest, which will be too late a time for them to capitalize on the rapid spread active safety technologies that will drive shipments of other sensors, such as radar and camera," says industry analyst James Hodgson. "The scale and frequency of investments in established LiDAR players and more recent OEM and tier-1 startups demonstrates the value that the industry places on LiDAR technology in the development of autonomous vehicles," he adds.

January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2017) in Las Vegas saw a number of presentations from LiDAR developers demonstrating low-cost solid-state solutions for mainstream deployment, such as Innoviz Technologies and LeddarTech (the latter of which last year announced a partnership with tier-1 automotive manufacturer Valeo). Further, current market leader Velodyne received a joint investment from Ford and Baidu totaling $150m in 2016 and recently announced its intention to develop a sub-$50 solid-state system for widespread implementation.

"2016 saw the necessary formation of new investments, startups and ecosystem partnerships for LiDAR to hit the ground running in the 2019-2020 timeframe," says Hodgson. "The universal focus on low-cost solutions to enable autonomous functions on high-volume models will accelerate LiDAR shipments throughout the next decade," he concludes.

Tags: LiDAR

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